It looks like the leader of the Shincheonji Church will be the fall guy for his church spreading coronavirus in Daegu:
The leader of a minor religious sect at the center of the early coronavirus outbreak in South Korea was arrested early Saturday for allegedly obstructing the government’s efforts to contain the spread of the pandemic.
A local court in Suwon, south of Seoul, issued an arrest warrant for Lee Man-hee, the founder of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.
Lee, 89, is suspected of submitting false documents to health authorities on the number of participants at the sect’s gatherings and where the gatherings took place in February, when the fringe religious sect became a hot spot of the virus spread in the early phase of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
He is also accused of embezzling 5.6 billion won (US$4.68 million) from church funds and holding unauthorized religious events from 2015-19.
Yonhap
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The faces in the Unification Ministry may change but the goal remains the same, find a way to avoid sanctions to send bulk cash transfers to North Korea:
“I’ll actively look for ways to restart the Mount Kumgang tour project,” he said while visiting Jejin Station in Goseong, northeast of Seoul, near the Demilitarized Zone that separates two Koreas. “The resumption of the tour program will send a message of peace on the Korean Peninsula and revive the economy of border regions.”
The minister also said he will go ahead with plans to reconnect the rail network to North Korea in a bid to create a new economic order on the Korean Peninsula.
During his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Lee said he would look for a “creative solution” to restart the tour program to North Korea’s scenic mountains in the form of individual tours as a way to improve inter-Korean relations without violating international sanctions imposed on Pyongyang.
Started in 2003, the project was suspended after a South Korean tourist was shot dead near the mountain resort in 2008. The program’s formal resumption requires a sanctions waiver, as it involves bulk cash transfer to the North.
Yonhap
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Jeju used to be the go-to spot for Korean honeymooners before the rise of the ROK economy allowed couples to more easily travel abroad. However, COVID restrictions is once again bringing honeymooners back to Jeju:
“Jeju was my last option for our honeymoon because I thought I could go there whenever I wanted,” he said. “But as a plan B, Jeju looked better than other places for good restaurants and attractions.”
The Gohs are not the only newlyweds to celebrate their marriage on the subtropical island amid the coronavirus pandemic.
To meet rising demand from such honeymooners, who replace their overseas trips with domestic ones, hotel operators in Jeju have come up with honeymoon packages in the spring-summer season.
Yonhap
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Somebody had to be held responsible for this dereliction of duty and it ended up being a ROK Marine Corps 2-Star General:
The border crossing near the western island of Ganghwa by the 24-year-old man, surnamed Kim, became known after North Korea reported Sunday that a “runaway” returned home in the border city of Kaesong with coronavirus symptoms and that the entire city was blocked off to prevent the spread of the virus.
South Korean officials said Kim had been under investigation over allegations he raped a female defector.
According to the JCS’ probe results, Kim was caught on the military’s surveillance equipment seven times — five on its monitoring cameras, twice on thermal observation devices (TODs) — including his arrival in the North, but troops failed to identify him as a person trying to cross the border.
The defector passed through a drainage tunnel running underneath barbed wire fences to evade South Korean border guards before reaching the shore and swimming a few kilometers to North Korea.
The fences set up inside the drainage tunnel were in poor condition, allowing the defector to pass through them easily, they said. It took just around 10 minutes for Kim to pass through the channel and reach the river separating the two Koreas.
The JCS will seek disciplinary measures against those accountable, including the dismissal of Maj. Gen. Baek Gyeong-sun as commander of the Marine Corps’ 2nd Division in charge of border security at the area, officials said.
Yonhap
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It looks like the Moon administration is willing to just let this one go down the memory hole. Will anyone remember this a few weeks from now? Probably not:
New Zealand said Thursday it has expressed disappointment that South Korea’s government did not cooperate with a police investigation into allegations that one of its diplomats sexually assaulted a local embassy employee when he was stationed in Wellington.
Korea Times
The male employee has accused the Korean diplomat of groping parts of his body over three different occasions in 2017. The case has drawn fresh attention after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern raised the issue in a phone call with President Moon Jae-in earlier this week.
“The New Zealand government has expressed its disappointment that the Korean government did not cooperate with earlier requests from New Zealand Police in respect of this case,” a spokesperson at New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in emailed comments to Yonhap News Agency.
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